Playground will provide environment for children of all abilities
By Teresa Sargeant
Reporter
Construction has kicked off this month on the Northwest Recreation Complex’s new all-inclusive playground, designed to enhance more inclusive play for children of all abilities.
The city broke ground in January on the all-inclusive playground, which will feature new play structures, Go-Rounds, ZipKrooz, a sensory garden, accessible pathways and more. New parking areas and a new exit roadway to Jason Dwelley Parkway will also be part of the construction project.
Project money comes from the city’s recreation impact fees, as well as a combined $110,000 donation from Unlimited Capabilities and one of its funding partners, the Douglas G Halliday Foundation.
In a Thursday, March 13, email between city staff, city park manager Christopher Richter said playground construction began the first week of March.
“Over the next couple of weeks the crews will continue to build the structures as well as work on installing the sidewalks and curbing,” Richter wrote in the email. “We should start to see the true footprint of the project become more clearly defined and the identity of the new park start to emerge.”
In a March 14 email response, city parks and recreation director Radley Williams said he’d like to start dispatching bi-weekly project updates to the mayor, commissioners and relative project partners.
In addition to the all-inclusive playground, other projects include phase one of the Community Redevelopment Agency Downtown Trail and the Northwest Recreation Complex relief driveway, Williams wrote.
“I think this will help keep the excitement active for these projects and keep you Mayor, the Commissioners, and the project partners up-to-date so that they have information to provide constituents should they be asked about our many on-going projects,” Williams wrote.
REP Services, Inc. and Landscape Structures are designing and constructing the playground. According to a past city of Apopka news release, Unlimited Capabilities’ mission lines up with the playground because this facility will introduce a new play space for all in the community to enjoy.
Prior to construction of the all-inclusive playground, the city closed the previous park last November to make way for the new facility.
The Apopka Chief is an award-winning weekly newspaper serving the greater Apopka area in Central Florida since 1923.
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